February 29, 2012

Beef Rendang

Rendang always reminds me of home. Of my mom. She makes terrific rendang, you named it; beef rendang, duck rendang, cockle rendang with snake beans, chicken rendang with maman/pegaga (some kind of kampung herbs).. I just love all of her rendangs. My husband claims her mom's rendang is the best. I'm not going to argue about it. We all grew up with mom's cooking. :P (my mom's is still the best.. :P -Let's just pretend I never said that)

Whenever I asked my mom for a recipe, she would go on and on, telling me the list of ingredients needed without the exact measurement and way of doing it. She has everything inside her head and she just threw everything inside her stew pot. Campak-campak. I know how to cook her version of rendang. Mine-the taste is somehow different. Her way of doing it probably just the same as your mom's or like the rest of rendang recipes available on Google. The only different would be her air tangan a.k.a a magic touch. Sob. I miss her.

Frankly, I never cook rendang before I was married. I just helped my mom making them (and eat'em of course) during Eid festival. That's all I did until last year. Last year marked the first year we had to prepare everything on our own. From A to Z. Thank God for Google (TGFG).

There are plenty of rendang variations out there. You just have to choose them wisely. Cik Mat Gebu has quite a number of rendang recipes and mine here is based on his Nyonya Rendang-slight variation on the spices. Tastewise, finger licking good! I love his rendang recipes. My taste buds kindda agree with it, it's idiot proof and it almost has the same taste as my mom's. Almost. Sob.

Someday, when he grows up, Adam will say that his mom's rendang is the best in the world. Hopefully. Err..on second thought, I don't want that to happen so quickly :p Please don't grow up so fast my little one...

Hi dear, i guess it's the mom's touch that will never be the same with any other. For me, rendang or any curry sounds too complicated about 4 years ago, until i had to make one further step and start making it myself. I hardly remembered which was cardamom, which was star anise and so on. And like you, TGFG :D

Look at all your tudung periuk semua!!! I was laughing at myself sebab if I were to do that I would have to find one fine day to scrub all of them before casting them in a photo shoot like you did. Cute sangat RC, great idea.